T 180 
P7 W5 

opy 1 



THE 



PROMISES OF GOD, 



CONSIDERED IN THEIR 



NATURE, SOURCE, CERTAINTY, FREENESS, PRE- 
CIOUSNESS AND SANCTIFYING POWER. 




E. C, WINES, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF 

"Adam and Christ," "The True Penitent," "A Treatise on 
Regeneration." "An Essay on Temptation," &c., &c. 




/ C PHILADELPHIA : 
PRESBYTEKL^N BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
* No. 821 CHESTNUT STREET. 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 



Westcott & ThomsoNj 
Stereotypers, Philada. 



LC control Nuniber 




tmp96 



031452 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 1. 

PAGE 

Definitions and Distinctions 5 

CHAPTER II. 
Christ the Fountain op the Promises 9 

CHAPTER III. 
The Truth and Certainty of the Promises 20 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Freeness op the Promises 31 

CHAPTER V. 
The Greatness and Preciousness op the Promises. 43 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Sanctifying Power of the Promises 64 



CHAPTER VII. 
Practical Issues 



79 

3 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS. 

A DIVINE promise is a gracious discovery 
-lJL of God's kindness and good-Avill to be- 
lieving sinners. It is a glorious declaration 
of his purpose, and a solemn engagement of 
his faithfulness, to bestow upon them some 
good or to avert from them some evil. 

The promises of God are of several sorts. 
They may he distingidshed as absolute or con- 
ditional. An absolute promise is one whose 
fulfilment is irrespective of all agency on the 
part of those to whom it is made. Such was 
the promise of God to send his Son for the 
1 * 5 



6 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



redemption of our race. Such also is the 
promise that he will no more destroy the 
world with a flood. 

A conditional promise is one whose fulfil- 
ment is dependent on something to be done by 
the person who is the object of it. Thus, the 
promise of forgiveness of sin is conditioned 
upon repentance and faith on the part of the 
sinner. Thus also the promise of covenant 
blessings to the children of believers is con- 
ditioned upon the faith and fidelity of the 
parents. 

They may be distinguished as temporal or 
spiritual. A temporal promise is the promise 
of some earthly good, as that engagement of 
God in ancient times that he would bring 
his chosen people into Canaan ; and that 
other engagement to his believing people of 
all times, that their bread and water shall be 
sure. 

A spiritual promise is the promise of some 
heavenly good, some benefit that appertains 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



7 



to our spiritual natures. Such is the promise 
that God will circumcise our hearts and give 
us a new and holy nature, and the promise 
that, after death, we shall be with Christ and 
behold his glory to eternal ages. 

Tliey may be distinguished as extraordmary 
and common. Extraordinary promises are 
those made to a particular individual, or a 
particular family, or a particular nation. 
Such was the promise made to Abraham, that 
in him should all the families of the earth be 
blessed ; that made to David, that his seed 
should sit upon the throne of Israel for ever; 
that made to the covenant people, that God 
would be their civil head and leader. 

Common promises are those which belong 
to all believers alike. Most of the promises 
contained in the divine AYord are those of 
this class — those innumerable engagements 
of divine love and grace which irradiate 
every page of the sacred volume, even as the 
constellations wiiich adorn the brow of night 



8 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



shed down their mild and benignant light 
from every portion of the visible heavens. 
It is these common promises, the inheritance 
of the whole household of faith, which St. 
Peter characterizes as exceeding great and 
precious. 



CHAPTER II. 



CHEIST THE FOUNTAIN OF THE PROMISES. 

THE original and spring of all gospel 
promises is the Lord Jesus Christ. This 
precious truth is taught by Peter in the fol- 
lowing passage: "According as his divine 
power hath given unto us all things that per- 
tain to life and godliness : whereby are given 
unto us exceeding great and precious prom- 
» ises/^ 2 Pet. i. 3, 4. The word " whereby/^ 
in verse fourth, refers to the divine power 
and glorious excellence of Jesus Christ ; that 
is, to Jesus Christ himself. Without any un- 
natural or forced construction, therefore, the 
passage might be rendered : " By, through, 
or in Christ Jesus, are given unto us exceed- 
ing great and precious promises.^^ Thus con- 

9 



10 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



strued, it distinctly teaches the doctrine 
enunciated as the theme of the present chapter. 

The same glorious and cheering truth is 
still more clearly taught by Paul in 2 Cor. i. 
20, where he affirms that ^^all the promises 
of God in him (that is, in Jesus Christ, as 
the contest shows) are yea, and in him, 
Amen.^^ Matthew Henry, in commenting on 
this passage, speaks of it as ^^a great and 
sweet truth^^ that all the promises of God are 
made in Christ Jesus, the Amen, the true and 
faithful Witness, who has purchased and 
ratified the covenant of promises, and is him- 
self the surety of that covenant* 

That Christ is the fountain of the 
promises is the proposition now^ to be 
established, illustrated and applied. 

Christ may be said to be the rise and 
Qpring of the promises^ inasmuch as they were 
oil purchased and. procured for us by the shed- 
ding of his most precious blood. As there is 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



11 



no remission of sins without the shedding of 
blood; even the blood of the Son of God, so 
there are no divine promises without that 
same blood-shedding. Many plain scriptures 
attest this truth. Let me direct the reader's 
attention to two or three of these scriptures. 
The first is contained in Eph. ii. 11, 13 : 
" Wherefore remember, that ye being in time 
past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called un- 
circumcision by that which is called the cir- 
cumsion in the flesh made by hands ; that at 
that time ye were without Christ, being aliens 
from the commonwealth of Israel and stran- 
gers from the covenants of promise : but now, 
in Christ Jesus, ye who some time were far 
off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.^' 
Observe the relation of ideas here: You 
Gentiles, in time past, were strangers to the 
divine promises, far removed from any par- 
ticipation in them ; but now you are brought 
nigh and made partakers of these promises by 
the blood of Christ. Again, in the same 



12 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



Epistle (Eph, iii. 6), the apostle speaks of the 
Gentiles as partakers of the promises in 
Christ ; that is^ through the purchase of his 
blood. In 1 Pet. i.^ 19, believers are said to 
be bought by the blood of Christ which 
is equivalent to saying that the promise of 
redemption in which all others are included 
is the purchase of his cross. 

Remarkable are the words of the apostle 
in the first of the above-cited scriptures. He 
speaks therein of the covenants of promise.'^ 
The covenant of grace (says Henry) has ever 
been the same for substance ; though, having 
undergone various additions and improve- 
ments in the several ages of the Church, it is 
called covenants ; and it is called the coven- 
ants of promise, because it is made up of 
promises, and particularly because it contains 
the great promise of the Messiah and of 
eternal life through him. Now, those who 
are without Christ, having no interest in the 
Mediator of the covenant, have no interest in 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



13 



the promises of the covenant. But in Christ 
Jesus, sinners who before were far off from 
his promises are by their new^ birth made 
nigh. They are brought into a vital union 
to Christ; are taken into the bond of the 
covenant; are made partakers of the promises; 
and become entitled to all the privileges con- 
sequent upon these new and blessed relations. 
Every believing sinner owes his nearness to 
God and his interest in the promises of the 
gospel to the death and sacrifice of Christ. 

There is not, then, a single promise in the 
Bible, great or small (if, indeed, any divine 
promise can be small), for which the blood 
of God's incarnate Son has not been paid as 
the price of it. On every one of these en- 
gagements of divine love may be inscribed 
the astonishing words, Bought with the 
Redeemer's blood.'' How tender, how affect- 
ing, how melting is this thought ! If, when 
we read or hear the promises, the memory of 
what has been paid for them returned more 

2 



14 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



frequently to our minds, how precious it 
would make them to us ! How it would 
engrave them upon our heart ! How it 
would endear them to our affection ! 

Christ is the fountain of the promises^ inas- 
much as it is to him, as our Head and Surety y 
that they are all originally made. The prom- 
ises are primarily to Christ ; and they are 
made to us only as we are in him. Through 
him alone are they made over to us. His 
blessed mediation is the only channel through 
which their divine benefits can flow into our 
souls. 

This point is cleared in 2 Tim. i. 19. 

Here the apostle teaches us that the grace of 
God, which bringeth salvation, " was given us 
in Christ Jesus before the world began.^^ If 
the grace by which we are saved was given 
us in Christ from eternity, then all the 
promises included in that grace must, as a 
necessary consequence, in time, have been 
given us in him likewise. 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



15 



The same truth is plainly taught by the 
Holy Ghost in Gal. iii. 16, where all the 
promises of the new and everlasting covenant 
are declared to be made to the seed of Abra- 
ham ; not to seeds as of many, but as of one ; 
^^and to thy seed which is Christ.^^ This 
scripture is very remarkable, very instruc- 
tive, very precious. Beyond a doubt, be- 
lievers are here included in Christ, and are 
regarded as constituting together with him 
that one seed of Abraham to whom alone 
the promises are made. In verses ninth and 
tenth, the apostle had spoken of two distinct 
seeds of Abraham, viz. : those which are 
of faith,^' the spiritual seed ; and those which 
^' are of the works of the law^,^^ the natural 
seed. God, he tells us, does not say to 
seeds,^^ as if he spake of different classes of 
menj who are entitled to the promises on dif- 
ferent grounds — that is, as well on the ground 
of natural descent as of faith — but he says, 
to thy " seed,'^ using the word in the singular 



16 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



number^ and designating thereby one sort of 
men only^ who upon one sole ground^ viz. : 
faith^ constituted that one ^^seed^^ of Abra- 
ham which is alone interested in the promises. 
^' Thy seed/^ then, in this passage means 
Christ and his mystical body ; that is, those 
who are his members by faith. To this 
spiritual seed, here called Christ, because 
he is the head and representative of the 
whole body, the apostle says the promises are 
made. 

The promises, then, are made to Christ, not 
simply as he is the second person in the 
Trinity, for in that absolute relation he is no 
nearer to us than the Father or the Spirit. 
They are made to him as Mediator, as the 
Representative and Surety of his people, as 
the Head of the Church and King of saints, 
as the blessed Days-man, as the Depository 
and Guardian of all the rights of the heirs 
of life and glory. Of his fulness it is that 
we all receive, even grace for grace; the 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



17 



graces that are in us springing from and 
answering to the graces that are in him. 

Oirist is the fountain of the promises^ inas- 
mitch as it is in and by him thai we have a right 
to them and to lohatevei' is included in them. 

"He that hath the Son hath life/^ A 
great principle is embodied in these words. 
Christ being ours^ all things are ours ; Paul, 
Apollos, Cephas, the w^orld, life, death, things 
present, things to come, all are ours ; much 
more then the exceeding great and precious 
promises of the gospel. " There is no con- 
demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.'^ 
Now, freedom from condemnation implies a 
title to life, and a title to life of necessity 
implies a right to all the promises which 
assure eternal life to the believer. But the 
promises belong only to those who are in 
union with Christ. If once a soul close with 
Christ in the covenant of promise, there is 
not one promise in the Scripture but he may 

write this superscription upon it, "This is 
2^ 



18 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



mine/^ Yes, dear reader, it is even so. If 
you have closed with Christ, you may write 
your own name upon every promise in the 
Bible regarding it as addressed to yourself 
personally, as much as if there was not an- 
other individual of the race who could 
become a partaker of its benefits. The prom- 
ises of the gospel are for all those who want 
them. The suggestion that they are not, 
come from whatever quarter it may, is a lie 
of the devil. It is of the very essence of 
faith to embrace the promises in the firm 
trust that Christ will do all he has said. 

Christ is the spring of the promises, inasmuch 
as it is his grace that prepares and qualifies us 
for the fulfilment of them. 

It is through grace received from Christ 
that we are enabled to believe the promises. 
It is through strength imparted by Christ 
that we are enabled to perform the conditions 
annexed to the promises. It is through faith, 
which is the gift of Christ, that we are en- 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



19 



abled to appropriate all the precious benefits 
of the promises. If Christ did not help us, 
we should never believe a single promise. If 
Christ did not help us, we should never obey 
the precept on which the promise is con- 
ditioned. If Christ did not help us, we 
should never receive the comfort and refresh- 
ment of an appropriating faith in the 
promise. 

So that in reference to the divine promises, 
as in reference to every other benefit and 
blessing of the new and everlasting covenant, 

Christ is all and in all.'^ 



CHAPTER III. 



THE TRUTH AND CERTAINTY OF THE 
PROMISES. 

A S Christ is the author and finisher of our 



J-Jl faith^ so is he the author and fulfiller of 
the promises. As surely as the promises are 
given in Christ, so surely will they be accom- 
plished by him. As surely as the promises 
have their rise in Christ, so surely will they 
receive their fulfilment through him. As 
surely as the grace of Christ is magnified in 
the giving of the promises, so surely his 
power and faithfulness w^ill be magnified in 
the accomplishing of the promises. 

All this is much more than indicated ; it is 
unequivocally taught in the passage cited in 
the last chapter from 2 Cor. i. 20, where the 




20 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



21 • 



apostle declares the promises to be ^^yea and 
araen'^ in Christ ; sure and steadfast for ever- 
more. They are the promises of the God of 
truth ; of him who cannot lie ; of him whose 
truth, like his mercy, endureth for ever. It 
is taught with no less clearness and emphasis 
in Heb. x. 23, where the apostle assures us 
that ^^he is faithful that promised.^^ God, 
who has given us exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises, is as faithful as he is kind. 
He is true to his word. Nay, he has magni- 
fied his word above all his name. Hath he 
said, and shall he not do it? Hath he 
spoken, and he shall not make it good? There 
is no deceit, no inconstancy, no unfaithful- 
ness in him. 

The Son of God, as Mediator, as the 
anointed Saviour of his people, is constituted 
Head over all things to the Church. If, 
therefore, the promises fail, it must be on 
one or other of the three following grounds, 
viz. : 



22 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



Defect of power, defect of love, or 
defect of faithfulness on his part. 

Can the "promises fail from defect of power in 
Christ? Noy assuredly; for all power in 
heaven and earth is his. What Christ has 
promised he is able to perform. Cherubim 
and seraphim, all the thrones and hierarchies 
of heaven, are subject to his will. Lift up 
your eyes to the heavens above — the sun, the 
moon, the stars, and the planets which you 
behold there are the issues of his power, the 
workmanship of his hand. He it is who 
stretched out these visible heavens in all 
their vast and illimitable extent. He it is 
who hung their lofty arches with those flam- 
ing orbs that have poured their brightness on 
unnumbered ages. He it is who created the 
earth and the sea by the word of his power. 
The ocean, the lightning, the cataract, the 
volcano, and those mightier though silent 
and unseen agencies by which the earth is 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



23 



annually renewed in beauty and covered with 
riches ; yea^ all the elements and powers of 
nature, visible and invisible, are ministers of 
his that do his bidding. What think ye of 
Christ ? Whose Son is he ? What think ye 
of his ability to make good what he has 
promised ? 

Can the promises fail from defect of love in 
Christ f No, emphatically ; for he rests in his 
love and changes not. Having loved his own^ 
Christ loves them to the end. His love to 
his chosen is an everlasting love. Having 
laid down his life to redeem them, he will 
sooner lay down his crown than desert them. 
The covenant of day and night is less stable 
than the covenant of his friendship to his 
people. Christ's love is like the sun both for 
permanence and diffusion. Yea, that glorious 
orb may be blotted from the heavens, and 
shine no more upon the nations; but the 
Sun of Righteousness shall beam in loving 
splendour upon his own to eternal ages. 



24 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



Moreover, as the rays of the sun reach east 
and west, north and south, and shine alike 
on bond and free, rich and poor, high and 
low, so do the rays of divine love extend to 
all places, all times, all colours and all con- 
ditions. " I love them that love me'^ are 
the Saviour's gracious words to his loving and 
obedient disciples. But more than this, his 
love prevents ouri, that is, goes before it ; for, 
says the apostle, ^^we love him because he 
first loved us.'' Oh, then. Christian, though 
clouds gather thick around you and intercept 
the present view of your Saviour, doubt not 
his love, distrust not his promise. Your love 
is not lost, neither has the object of it with- 
drawn his love from you. He has himself 
interpreted your affliction : " In a little wrath, 
I hid my face from thee for a moment ; but 
with everlasting kindness will I have mercy 
on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For 
the mountains shall depart and the hills be 
removed ; but my kindness shall not depart 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 25 



from tliee^ neither shall the covenant of my 
peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath 
mercy on thee/^ 

Can the promises fail through defect of faith- 
fulness in Christ f No, beyond a peradventure ; 
for faithful is he ivho has promised. What 
saith the Scripture ? Christ is therein called 
the ^'Amen/' " the faithful and true Witness/' 
He himself declares : I will not break my 
covenant, nor alter the word that hath gone 
out of my mouth/' Other divine testimonies 
affirm : The word of our God shall stand 
for ever " The word of the Lord is tried 

Jesus Christ was a minister of the circum- 
cision for the truth of God to confirm the 
promises/' &c. ; God is not a man that he 
should lie ; neither the son of man that he 
should repent All the promises of God 
in him are yea, and in him amen." 

But there is no need to multiply citations. 
Every reader of the Bible knows that it 
would be nothing short of blasphemy to 

3 



26 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



charge the Lord Christ with infidelity to his 
word. What is wanted is not arguments to 
convince the understanding, but appeals, per- 
suasives, motives, that shall command the 
soul— some power that may avail to bring our 
affections and our conduct into harmony 
with our convictions* A firm trust in the 
promises is an anchor to the soul when the 
tempest howls without and the waves of cor- 
ruption swell angrily within. Faith in the 
divine promises discerns a sun behind the 
blackest cloud, inspires courage amid a sea 
of dangers, and lights up the cheek of sorrow^ 
with the smile of hope. David had often 
put God's promises to the test, and never 
found one of them to fail. He was, there- 
fore, confident and daring. If a troop stood 
in his way, he ran through it. If a wall 
crossed his path, he leaped over it. And 
when his enemies rose up against him, they 
stumbled and fell. 

The word of the Lord has been tried. 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



27 



It has been tested, and has stood the 
proof. 

Abel tried it; and was accepted in his 
sacrifice, and received into the heaven for 
which his sacrifice and his holy living pre- 
pared him. 

Enoch tried it; and his translated and 
glorified body has become to the spirits of the 
just made perfect the pattern and model of 
their own when they shall be reanimated. 

Noah tried it ; and was saved by the very 
waters which drowned all the world besides. 

Abraham tried it ; and after long years of 
faith and patience he looked upon the prom- 
ised heir. 

Joseph tried it ; and in God's own best 
time he came forth from his prison-house to 
sway the destinies of Egypt. 

Moses tried it ; and the flinty rock yielded 
water in abundance, while the swelling floods 
became dry land. 

Joshua tried it ; and the people heard and 



28 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



were afraid ; sorrow took hold on the inhab- 
itants of Palestine. 

Gideon tried it ; and with his little band 
of three hundred, armed with their pitchers 
and their lamps, discomfited and put to 
flight the swarming hosts of Midian. 

David tried it; and, against all human 
probability, mounted the throne of his coun- 
try, and was graced with the crown of his 
implacable enemy. 

Daniel tried it ; and hungry lions became 
like lambs in his presence. 

The three Hebrew youths tried it ; and 
walked unharmed through the midst of the 
flames. 

Paul tried it ; and the arm of his enemies 
was paralyzed, and their will became im- 
potent to harm him. 

Martyrs, confessors and the saints of every 
age have tried it ; and to all of them it has 
stood firm as mountains of brass. 

Not one who has truly trusted in God has 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



29 



ever been confounded. He is a buckler to 
them that trust in him. A buckler is a piece 
of defensive armour designed to ward off the 
hostile spear or arrow. Reader^ take God at 
his word, and he wdll be your buckler. Xo 
fiery dart can pierce through such a shield. 
The keenest metal of the enemy will glance 
off as if it had but a feather's weight. Xever 
was there so strong a foundation as that on 
which a Christian's hope is built. That 
foundation is laid in the faithful promises of 
God. These are its strength. The heavens 
may be rolled together as a scroll and the 
elements melt with fervent heat ; the moun- 
tains may be torn from their deep foundations ; 
the stars may rush from their orbits in wild 
confusion ; the mighty pillars that uphold the 
frame of universal nature may tremble, totter 
and fall ; but God's word of promise shall 
abide steadfast and immovable amid the crash 
and ruin of a falling universe. Oh, must not 
the promises be faithful and unchangeable 

3 



30 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



which are given by the Father, who is the God 
of truth ; which are purchased by the Son^ 
who is the messenger of truth ; which are 
applied by the Holy Ghost^ who is the Spirit 
of truth; and which are published in the 
gospel, which is the word of truth. 

" How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, 
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word ! 
"What more can he say than to you he hath said, 
Who unto the Saviour for refuge have fled ? — 

" ' The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, 
I will not, I will not desert to his foes ; 
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake, 
ril never — no, never — no, NEVEE forsake/ " 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE FEEENESS OF THE PROMISES. 

THE freeness of the promises is indicated 
in the apostle's declaration (2 Pet. i. 4) 
that they are given unto us.'' 

This attribute of freexess in God's 
covenant engaoements to his people is 
the theme of the present chapter. 

And may the divine Spirit raise our 
thoughts to a height, and inspire our hearts 
with a tenderness, in some degree commen- 
surate with the sublimity and sweetness of 
our subject. 

The freeness of the 'promises {:ippears from 
a consideration of the sovereign, boundless and 
everlasting love and alUsnfficiency of God. in 
which they have their rise. 

31 



32 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



Here this freeness shines in all its attract- 
ive lustre. That pure, unbought, unmerited 
love is the fountain of the promises is clear 
from what God says in Deut. vii. 8. Therein, 
recounting the great things Avhich he had 
promised to his people and had done for 
them, he declares the ground of all to be his 
great love to them. And he draws the 
reason of that love from himself. He loved 
them because he loved them. His love is a 
law unto itself, there being no spring of love 
but love. 

The same thing is clear from the testimony 
in 2 Samuel vii. 20. God had just an- 
nounced to his servant David many great 
and precious promises, whereupon the royal 
prophet gratefully replies: According to 
thine own heart hast thou done all these 
great things f to make thy servant know 
them.^^ This is equivalent to saying: The 
rise and spring of all these promises is thine 
own self-originating goodness. 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



33 



God, by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, 
declares that the time of entering into 
covenant with his people is a time of love. 
In the promises of the covenant his free and 
condescending goodness shines pre-eminent. 

Mercy is the name given to the promises 
by the prophet Micah. To fulfil the prom- 
ises made to Abraham is, in the language of 
that prophet, to perform the mercy sworn 
unto our fathers from the days of old.^^ The 
promises are called by the name of -'^ mercy/^ 
because boundless mercy is the fountain from 
which they flow. 

And there is not only a spring of infinite 
love and pity in God, but there is also a 
spring of infinite fulness and sufficiency in 
him. Hence, when God made a covenant 
Avith Abraham, he prefaced it with the sub- 
lime announcement : " I am God all-suffi- 
cient.'^ While this was designed to assure 
Abraham^s faith, it seems also to have been, 
designed to repress any rising thought of 



34 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



merit in Abraham as the ground of the divine 
promise. It was an admonition that there 
was no excellency or perfection in him on 
which such a promise could be founded ; 
notjiing but an overflowing fulness of mercy 
in the divine nature itself^ to enter into a 
covenant relation with Abraham, and to en- 
gage his power and truth to bestow upon him 
the blessing promised in the covenant. 

The freeness of the promises is seen in the 
manner and language in which their blessings 
are offered. The proclamation and offer of 
these blessings runs thus : " Ho, every one 
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he 
that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; 
yea, come buy wine and milk without money 
and without price If any man thirst, let 
him come unto me and drink f " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest ^- Whosoever will, 
. let him take of the water of life freely.^^ 

"What can be freer in spirit or in form than 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



35 



these invitations and offers ? Their purport 
is : " Take the promises with all their bless- 
ings, if you will/' What absolute freeness 
have we here ! A willingness to embrace the 
promises constitutes a warrant to embrace 
them. The water that slakes our thirst, the 
air that sustains our life, are not more free than 
the promises of a gracious God. 

The character of the persons to tohom the 
promises are made speaks their freeness. David 
reads the freeness of the promises in his own 
littleness, as we see in 2 Sam. vii. 18 : Who 
am I, and what is my house, that thou hast 
brought me hitherto ? . . . . For thy word's 
sake, and according to thine own heart, hast 
thou done all these great things.'' 

Jacob acknowledges the same thing, w^hen 
he says : I am not worthy of the least of all 
the mercies and of all the truth which thou 
hast shown unto thy servant." 

JR-eader, have w^e not reason not only to 
confess but to admire the freeness of the 



36 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



promiseSj when we consider the deep de- 
pravity of our nature and the exceeding 
ill-desert of our life? As the young of the 
tiger and the lion^ though as yet compara- 
tively harmless^ because neither their strength 
nor their disposition is fully developed^ do 
nevertheless give token of their native fero- 
city^ so infant children soon begin to mani- 
fest their inborn depravity. They early 
show by their fruits that they are the de- 
generate plants of a strange vine, the shoots 
of a bitter root. 

^^I sinned/^ says Augustine, "in my in- 
fancy ; and although I do not remember what 
][ then did, I learn it from the conduct of 
ethers at the same age. I discovered disposi- 
tions wdiich would be blamed in me now, 
ai\d which, when we grow up, we are at pains 
eradicate. I sought with tears things 
wlich it would have been improper to give 
me. I was indignant at my superiors and 
my parents because they would not comply 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



37 



with my wishes, and attempted to avenge 
myself by striking them. I have seen a 
child that could not speak full of envy, and 
him pale with anger at another that was 
suckled along with it.'^ 

These early manifestations are but too true 
an index of what the after life is likely to be. 
Every imagination of the thought of man^s 
heart is evil and only evil continually, even 
from his youth up. All our senses and all 
our faculties are inlets and instruments of sin. 
Our eyes are the ministers of evil concupis- 
cence. Our ears are open to slander and 
detraction. Our tongue is rash, irreverent 
and censorious. Our hands are injurious and 
unclean. Our will is perverse, stubborn and 
unsanctified. Our passions are violent and 
rebellious. Our desires are irregular, im- 
patient and unreasonable. Our imagination 
is wayward and wanton. Great is the num- 
ber of our secret as well as our open sins — 
sins of thought ; sins of desire ; sins of pur- 

4 



38 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



pose ; sins of voluntary ignorance ; sins 
which a diligent and watchful spirit might 
have prevented, but we used not the diligence 
and the watchfulness necessary to prevent 
them. Most truly has the pen of inspiration 
said of us, that we have our habitation in 
the dust and drink in iniquity like *waters. 
Confounded and overwhelmed by the number, 
variety and aggravation of our transgressions, 
we may well exclaim : Lord, what is man 
that thou art mindful of him, or the son of 
man that thou visitest him?^^ Surely, prom- 
ises made to such a being must be free 
indeed ! They can have no other spring than 
the sovereign, unbought, limitless love and 
pity of the infinite Jehovah. 

The freeness of the divine promises appears 
from this, that the conditions on which their 
blessings are to he had can be performed only 
through strength received from above. Man, 
since the fall, is essentially weak. He has no 
inclination to good works, and no ability to 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



39 



perform them. He is without strength. 
Such is the plain testimony of the inspired 
oracles. " No man/^ said the Master, " can 
come to me, except the Father which hath 
sent me draw him.^^ Again : " I, if I be 
lifted up, wdll draw all men unto me.^^ 
These scriptures show that an influence must 
emanate from the Father and the Son to 
kindle spiritual desire in the sinner, and to 
quicken his pursuit of spiritual good. 

Without the co-operating grace of God 
we cannot perform a single duty acceptably. 
It is God who worketh in us both to will and 
to do. 

Salvation is promised on condition of faith. 
But faith is the gift of God. To you,^^ says 
the apostle, " it is given to believe.'^ 

Pardon is promised on condition of repent- 
ance. But it is the office of the Holy 
Spirit to convince of sin and work godly sor- 
row in the soul. 

Heaven is promised as the reward through 



40 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



grace of a holy life, and a distinguished place 
in heaven as the reward of distinguished holi- 
ness. But it is God who circumcises our 
hearts and communicates renew^ing and sancti- 
fying grace. 

Thus we may run through all the promises 
of the new covenant ; and we shall find there 
is not one of them whose condition we can 
perform except as Christ our Surety gives us 
strength to perform it. 

What conclusion follows? Surely, that the 
promises cannot be otherwise than free, when 
not only are they given without any merit in 
lis as an equivalent, but when also, to fulfil the 
very conditions on which their benefits are 
oflfered to us, it is indispensable that we 
receive help from the Promiser himself. 

The greatness of the things promised evinces 
the fremess of the promises. If the richest 
man or mightiest monarch of earth should 
adopt a poor man, and promise to make him 
his heir, could such an act be prompted by 



THE PROxMISES OF GOD. 



41 



any tliouo-ht of a reniuDeratiDo; return from 
the person thus adopted and thus raised to 
new hopes and expectations? Must not such 
adoption, of necessity, be regarded by the 
subject of it as an act of free condescension 
and kindness ? He coukl not have purchased 
it. He had nothing wherewith to repay so 
great a benefit. The means of purchase and 
repayment were wanting. The very magni- 
tude of the benefit, so far beyond his utmost 
power of recompense, would proclaim and 
demonstrate its entire freeness. 

Consider now the greatness of the blessings 
promised in God\s covenant engagements to 
his children. Who can declare that greatness ? 
Who can conceive it ? Justification, adoption, 
peace with God, sanctification, eternal blessed- 
ness — in a word, every thing included in 
those two comprehensive and precious words, 
GRACE and GLORY — such are the blessings 
promised to penitent and believing sinners. 
In the greatness of the promises, then, may 

4 ^ 



42 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



be seen^ written as with a sunbeam, their 
absolute freeness. 

If the promises of God were of a lower 
nature, a narrower compass, a magnitude less 
stupendous and amazing, it would be less a 
matter of wonder that human merit should 
presume to interpose a claim, and dare to 
plead that claim as a ground of receiving 
their benefits. But when a Christian com- 
pares his own unspeakable littleness with the 
still more unspeakable greatness of the divine 
l^romises, he may well exclaim, nay, he must 
of necessity exclaim : These are, indeed, the 
precious gifts, the rich and free donations, 
of a loving and merciful God ; and who am 
I, and what is my father's house, that thou 
hast brought me hitherto, and made me par- 
taker of a hope so sweet, so animating, so 
sublime 




CHAPTER V. 



THE GREATNESS AND PRECIOUSNESS OF THE 
PROMISES, 

THE reader's attention, in the present 
chapter, is directed to the glorious and 
consolatory truth conveyed by the words of 
the apostle Peter: Exceeding great and 
precious promises/' 

The greatness and preciousness of 
the divine promises is our present 

THEME. 

This is a theme most animating and cheer- 
ing to the Christian heart, and at the same 
time sweetly persuasive to those who have not 
yet been made partakers of Christ and his 
benefits. 

The greatness of tilings contained in the 

43 



44 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



iwomises speaks the greatness of the promises 
themselves. 

These things are, in two words, grace and 
glory— glory as the end, and grace as the 
means of attaining it. " This is the promise 
which he hath promised us, eternal life.^^ 
Eternal life, then, is the crowning promise of 
the Gospel. Eternal life ! I cannot explain 
it. I cannot comprehend it. I cannot con- 
ceive it. What human thought is broad 
enough or high enough to grasp the span and 
altitude of eternity ? The mind grapples 
with this stupendous idea, and attempts to 
comprehend it. But it is quickly mastered 
and overpowered in the effort. It spreads its 
wings and soars into the inconceivable ex- 
panse, but it soon falls down wearied with 
the flight, and sees infinity of duration 
stretching itself out in illimitable lines be- 
yond the utmost point to which it can travel. 

But if eternity, in the naked conception 
of it, be so vast, so amazing an object as to 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



45 



overpower all thought, how does it still en- 
large and intensify the idea to see it clothed 
with a happiness commensurate with its own 
infinitude ? Eternal bliss ! Everlasting joy ! 
Delight without interruption and without 
end ! Oh, ought not this to swallow up every 
other thought, and engross the whole atten- 
tion and energy of every rational being ? 

But, though it doth not yet appear what 
we shall be, though we cannot fully compre- 
hend that eternal life which is the object of 
divine promise in the Gospel, yet some rays 
of the heavenly glory do even now shine 
upon our darkness; some glimpses of our 
future and everlasting blessedness visit and 
cheer us with their light even in this dun- 
geon of earth. 

The heavenly state is a state of perfect 
bliss, excluding all presence of evil, all want 
of good. 

This state will be introduced by the resur- 
rection of the body and its reunion to the 



46 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



spirit ; tlie body now fashioned like unto the 
glorified body of the risen and ascended 
Saviour, and no longer subject to pain, decay, 
or dissolution. 

In this state the sources of enjoyment will 
be greatly multiplied and the capacity for 
enjoyment enlarged beyond all present power 
of conception. Now we are in our spiritual 
infancy ; then we shall have reached the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. 
The redeemed will be with Christ ; will be- 
hold his glory ; and will be changed into the 
same image from glory to glory. Then com- 
munion with the Saviour and with each other 
will be most intimate and enduring. They 
will renew their former friendships ; will 
retrace their earthly experiences, and will ex- 
patiate for ever in the pleasures of a mutual 
endearment, a holy and inviolable affection. 
Heaven is a state of absolute, permanent and 
ineffable delight. It is an admission into the 
immediate presence of the Father of spirits. 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



47 



It is an eternal basking in the unclouded 
light of the divine countenance. It is a per- 
petual drinking at the fountain of all beati- 
tude^ the river of eternal pleasures^ the 
fulness of uncreated bliss.^^ 

The heavenly state is represented under 
the notion of an inheritance. 

As compared with earthly inheritance^ it is 
declared by the pen of inspiration to be a 
" better and an enduring substance.^^ Every 
word in this inspired delineation is significant 
and emphatic. 

The heavenly inheritance is a substance 
it is solid — not shadowy. 

The treasures of earth are vanity and 
emptiness. At best^ they can but surround 
their possessors with a pomp as hollow as it 
is glittering. They cannot enrich the soul. 
They cannot irradiate the mind. They can- 
not impart a solitary mental grace or joy. 
They cannot meet the wants of the heart. 
They cannot silence the voice of conscience. 



48 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



They cannot allay the agonies of remorse. 
Above all, they cannot shed one ray of hope 
upon the dark valley, nor procure a single 
drop of water to ease the torment of the soul 
amid the living fires of perdition. But 
the heavenly riches are substantial. They 
belong to the spirit, and are as indestructible 
as the spirit itself. 

The heavenly inheritance is, also, a bet- 
ter substance better than any treasure that 
earth affords. 

Earthly riches cannot satisfy the soul. 
On the contrary, they enlarge its desires and 
inflame its passions, rendering them more 
imperious and insatiable. Not so with the 
heavenly riches. They fill the soul. They 
tranquillize the spirit. They meet its strong- 
est desires. They satisfy its loftiest aspira- 
tions. They bring solid and lasting con- 
tentment to the mind. 

The heavenly inheritance is an enduring'^ 
as well as a better substance.^' 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



49 



How great the contrast here between the 
riches of time and the riches of eternity ! 
The man who has heaped up treasures upon 
earth, and is not rich toward God, can carry 
none of his treasures with him into the 
eternal world. He must leave his splendid 
mansion and equipage behind ; bid adieu to 
his groves and lawns, and the shades under 
which he reposed ; and carry nothing with 
him but the guilty and the bitter recollection 
of having abused his earthly grandeur. But 
the good man carries away with him his 
heavenly substance. He retains the acquisi- 
tions of piety — riches of a kindred nature to 
the treasures of heaven.^^ Nearly six thou- 
sand years have passed since the solitary 
voice of the martyred Abel raised the first 
song of redemption on the heavenly heights. ^ 
That voice has since been joined by a count- 
less multitude, which now swells the harmony, 
loud as the voice of mighty thunderings, 
which celebrates the Eedeemer's victories. 

6 



50 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



AH this innumerable company of the saved 
still breathe the element of immortality. 
Their inheritance of love and joy knows no 
decay, dreads no eclipse, anticipates no end, but 
reposes in the confidence of a perpetual fruition. 

Must not those be great and precious 
promises which assure to us so great and 
precious a happiness, so glorious and enduring 
an inheritance ? 'No pain is felt in heaven. 
No tears are shed, no graves are opened^ no 
friends are buried there. No baffled schemes, 
no blasted hopes, no treacherous friendships, 
no sudden disappointments are encountered 
in that blessed world. But one deep and 
broad stream of happiness rolls through 
eternity, for ever deepening and widening 
as it rolls. There are the tree of life, 
the crystal river, the white-robed com- 
pany, the glittering city and the radiant 
throne of God, seen in vision by the rapt 
exile of Patmos. All this, and much more^ — 
yea, more than tongue can speak or heart 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



51 



conceive— is embraced within those divine 
promises^ which are thence most fitly de- 
nominated " exceeding great and precious/^ 

But not only is eternal glory held out to us 
in the promises of the Gospel ; we are therein 
also assured of the grace necessary to conduct 
us to that glory and to fit us for the enjoy- 
ment of it. 

The Lord will give grace and glory.^^ 
" My grace is sufficient for thee.^^ When 
thou passest through the waters, I will be 
with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall 
not overflow thee : when thou walkest 
through the fire, thou shalt not be burned ; 
neither shall the flame kindle on thee.'' 
^^•God is faithful, who will not suffer you to 
be tempted above that ye are able." " If 
any man love me, I will love him, and will 
manifest myself unto him/' The foregoing 
are but a specimen of those precious covenant 
engagements by which the presence and aid 
of the blessed Trinity are assured to believers, 



52 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



SO that every true Christian may boldly say, 
The Lord is my helper ; and, " I can do 
all things though Christ, who strengtheneth 
me/^ " The saactification of Christians (says 
Robert Hall) is progressive ; their likeness to 
Christ augments ; their path is like that of 
the lip-ht, that brio-htens from the p-lim merino; 
dawn to the perfect day. Their victory over 
the world is acquired by faith in Christ. By 
this they learn to trample upon the world, at 
least in their better moments, as they proceed 
on their way to glory. Such is the experi- 
ence of all true believers, and such the extent 
of the promises of God.'^ 

Are not heaven, the endless enjoyment of 
God, the society of saints and angels, the 
supreme calm of the soul, and a felicity 
where there is nothing in the past to wound, 
nothing in the present to vex, and nothing in 
the future to dread, — are not these great and 
precious benefits? And is not the grace 
which conducts us to them, and fits us for 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



53 



them equally great and precious? Yet all 
this grace and glory is within the bosom of 
the divine promises. With the utmost pro- 
priety, then, may the apostle, from the 
greatness and preciousness of the promised 
blessings, name the promises themselves ex- 
ceeding great and precious.^^ 

The greatness and preciousness of the divine 
promises are manifest from a consideration of the 
price at ichich they have been pn:r chased. The 
value of an estate or a commodity is seen in 
the sum which a wise man, skilled in the 
knowledge of the property in cpiestion, is 
wdlling to pay for it Thus a farm or a dia- 
mond is worth what a wise farmer or an 
expert jeweller is willing to give in exchange 
for it. Our Saviour commends the wisdom 
of the merchant who sold all his estates in 
order to^gain possession of one pearl of great 
price. The wisest of men, however, some- 
times make mistakes. But God's knowledge 
is infallible. His judgments are always ac- 
5 



54 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 

cording to truth. If^ therefore, he has in any 
case laid down an infinite treasure for the 
purchase of any blessings, it is and can be 
only because those blessings are of infinite 
value. With such a treasure has he pur- 
chased the promises of the everlasting Gospel. 
Upon every one of these promises may be in- 
scribed the astonishing words : The blood 
of God^s incarnate Son has been paid for 
this.^^ 

If there is anything which can enhance 
our estimate of the preciousness of the divine 
promises, it must be the consideration of what 
it cost the Redeemer to procure these bless- 
ings for us. To effect this purchase, it was 
necessary for him to exchange a world of 
glory, happiness and purity for a world of 
meanness, misery and sin. It was necessary 
for him to descend from heaven and become 
an inhabitant of earth and partaker of flesh 
and blood with us ; to suffer hunger, thirsty 
weariness, pain, temptation, the mockery of 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



55 



foes, the desertion of friends and the rage of 
devils, and finally to endure the shame and 
agony of death by crucifixion. 

All this was necessary before a solitary 
promise of the Gospel could be made to a son 
or daughter 'of Adam. Surely, when we look 
at the amazing price which was laid down 
for God^s covenant engagements, we may 
well pronounce them, with the apostle, " ex- 
ceeding great and precious.^^ Shall we not, 
then, place a corresponding value upon them 
in our thoughts and affections? Shall we 
barter the blessings which they assure to us 
for pleasures which are not only base in their 
nature, but momentary in their duration? 
Shall we barter these blessings for the sordid 
gains of avarice or the false splendours of 
ambition? Shall we barter them even for 
the delights of knowledge, the purest and 
noblest of mere earthly pleasures, which 
endure but for a season, and in which, 
are too thickly sown the seeds of dis- 



56 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



quietude^ disappointment, vexation and sor- 
row ? 

The promises of God are exceeding great 
and precious because of their certainty. Men 
often prove false to their engagement!^. 
Either their ability comes short of their 
intentions ; or they promise in the dark, and 
shrink back from the unforeseen consequences 
of fidelity ; or they make pledges under the 
excitements of a momentary ardour, and re- 
pent of their rashness before it has taken 
eflPect. 

But none of these weaknesses belong to 
God. Truth, power, knowledge and faithful- 
ness are his, and that in an infinite degree. 
Measure not the stability of promises which 
are divine by the instability of promises which 
are human. God is not a man that he should 
lie, nor the son of man that he should de- 
ceive. All his promises are yea and amen in 
Christ Jesus. They all centre in Christ. 
They all rest on Christ. They were all pur- 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



57 



chased by Christ. They are all applied by 
the Spirit of Christ. 

Is it possible for promises to fail which 
spring from such a source and rest on such a 
foundation? Never! Nothing but truth 
can issue from the fountain of truth. AYe 
are not sure of anything beneath the sun 
but that which is certified to us by a divine 
promise. Doubt, contingency, disappoint- 
ment, change inhere in all things, human- 
and earthly. The best-laid schemes may 
never realize their purpose. The brightest 
verdure is destined to decay. The freshest 
flowers wither and fade. The tallest trees 
are most exposed to be uprooted by the storm. 
The firmest rocks may be displaced by the 
earthquake. The most massive structures 
may be leveled by the tornado. The grasp 
by which w^e hold to all things earthly is 
slippery and treacherous. 

In his sure Word, in his faithful promises, 
and there alone, God has fixed an absolute 



58 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



and unalterable certainty. He lias purposely 
mingled uncertainty in all other things, that 
we may not confide in them ; but here is 
certainty that we may glory only in the Lord. 
The humblest, the weakest, who is contrite 
in heart, may be assured of entering into 
felicity. The poorest and the feeblest person 
who thirsts after spiritual blessings will cer- 
tainly attain them ; for the promises which 
certify these blessings are the promises of 
him who cannot lie ; they are the true and 
faithful promises of God. Whether success 
may attend us in worldly affairs depends on 
a variety of natural causes; but when God 
has been pleased to give us a promise, we 
rest upon a sure basis ; he makes all things 
certain. This is the case with all the prom- 
ises of the Gospel ; for thus saith the Alpha 
and Omega, the faithful and true Witness, 
I will give unto hira that is athirst of the 
fountain of the water of life freely .^^ Surely, 
those promises are exceeding great and 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



59 



precious/^ which make certain to us a hap- 
piness as lasting as it is divine- — a happi- 
ness worthy of the infinite God to bestow^ 
and worthy of an immortal creature to 
desire. 

It is a proof of the greatness of the proraises 
that they are directed to the manifestation of the 
divine glory. That the promises are designed 
to this end the apostle expressly affirms in 2 
Cor. i. 20 : " All the promises of God in him 
(that is, in Christ) are yea, and in him amen, 
unto the glory of God by usJ^ It is, indeed 
true, that the essential glory of the Godhead 
is incapable of increase. But that glory 
may be manifested, set forth, made an object of 
perception, and so of admiration and adora- 
tion. It is to the intent that God's glory 
may be displayed to the view of the universe, 
and so become the spring and ground of 
praise to him, that his promises are given. 
And it is in redemption, with which all the 
promises of the Gospel are connected, that 



60 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



the most illustrious display of the divine 
glory is made. Heaven, with all its splen- 
dours, cannot surpass the exhibition of the 
moral glory of God, made in the redemptive 
work of Jesus, whose infinite and everlasting 
benefits are assured to us in the promises. 

Exceeding great and precious,^^ then, must 
those promises be which subserve so exalted 
a purpose as the manifestation of the divine 
honour. 

The sanctify ing power of the promises evinces 
their preciousness. The apostle Peter affirms 
that the promises of God are given to this 
very end, that we might thereby escape the 
corruption that is in the world through lust 
nay, that we might, through them, '^^ become 
partakers of the divine nature.^^ This divine 
nature belonged to man at his creation, and 
constituted that original perfection in w^hich 
he was formed. The image of his Maker 
shone resplendent in his soul. His under- 
standing was full of light ; his affections full 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



61 



of purity ; and his will sweetly obedient to 
the dictates of both. 

To this primitive perfection of our nature 
it is the design of the promises to restore us. 
By embracing them in a true faith, man 
becomes renewed in the image of God — in 
knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. 
^^The promises of the everlasting covenant 
are the pencils which draw the draughts and 
lineaments of the image of Christ upon the 
soul.'^ Exceeding great and precious is this 
blessing, and " exceeding great and precious'^ 
are the promises from which it springs. 

The promises are great and predous because 
of their intimate relation to Christ, 

The promises of the Gospel are so many 
streams flowing from the precious and loving 
heart of the Redeemer. Now, the waters 
which flow from a fountain partake of the 
nature of the fountain. A sweet spring 
must have sweet issues. Of necessity, there- 
fore, the divine promises must be pre- 

6 



62 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



eminently and supremely precious on account 
of their rise in and descent from such a source. 

But they are no less precious because of 
another relation they have to Christ. They 
not only spring from him, but lead to him. 
They are the guides of souls to that great 
object of all evangelical and saving faith. 
Every promise of the Gospel has a voice, 
which cries aloud to perishing sinners : 
^' Come to Christ and be saved. As the 
star that appeared to the Eastern sages at the 
birth of our Saviour guided them to his 
cradle, so do the divine promises guide all the 
tribes of earth to the cross on which he suf- 
fered. They all point to the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sins of the world. 

Finally : The ineffable sweetness which the 
saints taste in the promises proclaim their ex- 
ceeding preciousness. The holy Psalmist, in 
the depth of his affliction, when his foot 
slipped and his soul had almost dwelt in 
darkness, declares : " In the multitude of my 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



63 



thoughts within me^ thy comforts delight my 
soul/^ And whence could these divine com- 
forts spring but from the divine promises? 
It was God^s mercy made sure to him in the 
promises that supported and consoled David 
in the sharpness of his trials. And such is 
the experience of all the saints. These 
precious streams of divine consolation — the 
promises — are their strength and their song 
in the bouse of their pilgrimage. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE SANCTIFYING POWER OF THE PROMISES. 

rnHE tendency of the promises to promote 
sanctification is distinctly affirmed by 
Peter in the passage wherein he declares that 
we are, through them, made partakers of the 
divine nature (2 Pet. i. 4). 

^' Partakers of the divine nature.^^ This 
is a very remarkable form of expression to 
be applied to sinful men. It is worth while 
to inquire carefully into its signification. It 
cannot, of course, denote a change of the sub- 
stance of the human nature into the substance 
of the divine nature. The Christian can, in 
no sense or manner, become a sharer in the 
essence of the God head. Such partici^jation 
is an impossibility for any creature, however 

64 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



65 



exalted or holy. The change^ therefore, 
must be altogether moral. It has reference 
to the qualities and operations of the soul, 
rather than to the soul itself. It implies that 
the believer, by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
is made partaker of a nature resembling that 
of the Deity, so far as the finite can be like 
the Infinite. 

The use of the word divine'^ in such a con- 
nection is not peculiar to the inspired penman. 
The best moral writers among the ancient 
Greeks and Romans drew their strongest 
motives to virtue from the doctrine of the 
souFs immateriality and immortality. Hence 
they applied to the soul the epithets " divine'^ 
and godlike.'^ Of this v^^e have a noted 
example in a passage of rare beauty which 
occurs in Cicero's book on Laws. He that 
hath known himself,^' says the great Roman 
moralist, " will perceive that he hath some- 
thing within him divine, as it were, an image 
dedicated to the Deity. Thus he will think 

6 ^ 



66 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



and act worthy of so great a gift ; and by the 
study of eternal things shadowed forth in the 
works of nature he will learn that the good 
man and the good man only, is destined to 
be happy. Contrasting the things which are 
perishing with those which are eternal, he will 
look upon himself as an inhabitant of the uni- 
verse; and he will despise and count as 
nothing those matters which are accounted 
valuable by ordinary minds.^' 

What was dim though sublime conjecture 
to Cicero and others among the best of the 
ancients, is a blessed certainty to the student 
of the Scriptures ; and great is the reproach of 
Christians if they draw no sanctifying energy 
from a revealed truth whose very shadow 
gave to a heathen writer aspirations so pure 
and lofty. 

Man, when formed at first by the creative 
hand of the Almighty, was made in the 
image of God ; and when formed anew by the 
divine energy of the Holy Ghost, he is 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



67 



restored to the same image. But the likeness is 
one, not of form or essence, but of attributes. 
It is a moral resemblance. The apostle ex- 
plains it as consisting in knowledge, right- 
eousness and holiness. A mind filled with 
divine knowledge, actuated by divine princi- 
ples, animated by divine affections, and con- 
formed to the divine character and will, is, 
in the sense of the passages cited from Peter, 
a partaker of the divine nature. Such an 
one resembles God as much as the creature 
can resemble the Creator. 

The promises of God tend to the 
production of this resemblaxce of the 
human nature to the divine. but in 
what manner and by what influences ? 

The ANSWER to this question IS WHAT 
WILL BE ATTEMPTED IN THE PRESENT 
CHAPTER. 

Let it be premised, however, that since the 
blessings which we are about to enumerate 
come to us through the promises, it is essen- 



68 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 

tial to the reception of the blessings that the 
promises be believed and personally applied 
by each individual believer. The promises, 
discredited and rejected can do the sick soul 
no more good than medicine refused and un- 
tasted can the sick body. With this pre- 
liminary remark, we proceed to the task in 
hand, which is to show wherein consists the 
sanctifying power of the promises — those 
gracious engagements of divine love and 
mercy. 

The promises of the Gospel are adapted to 
promote Christian sanctijieation by their tend- 
ency to beget repentance for sin, to aid in the 
worh of mortifying sin, and to promote moral 
reformation. Sorrow for sin and hatred of it 
are produced chiefly in two ways : namely, 
by the contemplatiom of the penalty threat- 
ened against trangression, and by the contem- 
plation of the promises contained in the 
Gospel. The divine law was given for our 
highest good. Every violation of it is at- 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



69 



tended with two evil consequences : it de- 
stroys the happiness flowing from obedience, 
and it incurs the guilt or liability to punish- 
ment attendant on disobedience. When the 
sinner seriously considers' these consequences, 
he must feel mingled emotions of shame, 
terror, grief, anxiety and abhorrence of sin. 
Christ and his apostles often made use of such 
considerations to awaken a salutary fear in 
the minds of their hearers. Knowing the 
terrors of the Lord, they persuaded men. 
But they made a more frequent use of the 
other class of motives — namely, those drawn 
from the love of God as revealed in the 
promises of the Gospel. Their whole heart, 
as it were, lives in them. And these motives 
have a mighty efficacy in promoting reforma- 
tion of life. When we consider, on one side, 
the undeserved love and kindness of God, 
exhibited in so many ways and assured to us 
by so many great and precious promises, and, 
on the other, our own negligence, ingratitude, 



TO 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



rebellion and wilful rejection of the means of 
happiness offered to us by God, we cannot 
but feel penitence, abhorrence of sin and love 
to God in Christ, who has done and is willing 
to do so much for us. But all these emotions 
have a highly sanctifying influence. Moral 
amendment and growth in holiness are neces- 
sarily and essentially involved in them. 

The tendency of the promises to sanctifica- 
tion by helping us to overcome the corrup- 
tions of our carnal nature is distinctly de- 
clared by Peter (2 Ep, i. 4), where he says 
that by them we are enabled to " escape the 
corruption that is in the world through lust.^^ 
The same truth is taught by Paul in 2 Cor. 
vii. 1, where he exhorts that, "having these 
promises,^^ we " cleanse ourselves from all 
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting 
holiness in the fear of God.^^ The promises 
lay us, as it were, under a divine bond to 
practice holiness in testimony of our grateful 
sense of God^s love in giving them. They 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



71 



also minister to us strength for carrying for- 
ward the work of sanctification in our hearts 
and lives. The promises are to the Christian 
what Samson's locks were to him — they are 
that wherein his great strength lies. Let a 
Christian cut himself off from the promises 
by unbelief^ and all his spiritual forces v. ill 
decay. He will become weak like other men^ 
and unable to make head against the stream 
of nature. The promises hold out to our 
faith the glorious reward which attends a 
holy life. There are several promises of 
the everlasting covenant/' says an old writer, 
" that cry forth to the Christian, ' To him 
that overcometh will this promise be accom- 
plished — to him that overcometh will this 
truth be fulfilled ;' and this doth exceedingly 
provoke a Christian to wrestle with all the 
discouragements he meeteth with in the way. 
He burieth all his anxieties within the circle 
of his immortal crown, which he hopeth for 
and seeth in the promise." 



72 THE PROMISES OF GOB. 

The sanctify ing power of the promises ap- 
pjears in this, that they prompA to prayer ^ 
quicken us in that heavenly duty and give us a 
relish for and delight in it. This tendency of 
the promises appears very clearly in the his- 
tory and experience of David. That eminent 
saint of the Lord closes a prayer, breathing a 
most devout and heavenly spirit, in these re- 
markable words : " For thou, O Lord of 
hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy 
servant, saying, I will build thee an house : 
therefore hath thy servant found in his heart 
to pray this prayer unto thee. And now, 
O Lord God, thou art that God, and thy 
words be true, and thou hast promised this 
goodness unto thy servant. Therefore now 
let it please thee to bless the house of thy 
servant, that it may continue for ever before 
thee : for thou, O Lord God, hast spoken 
it : and with thy blessing let the house of 
thy servant be blessed for ever.^^ It is in- 
structive to observe with what boldness, 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



73 



confidence^ fervour and importunity the royal 
suppliant is inspired by the consideration that 
God had promised the things which formed 
the matter of his prayer: ^^Thou hast prom- 
ised : therefore thy servant hath found it in 
his heart to pray this prayer/^ 

So^ likewise, in the 119th Psalm, David 
declares : I prevented the dawning of the 
morning, and cried ; I hoped in thy word/^ 
Here he assigns his faith in God's gracious 
pledge as the ground of his diligence and fer- 
vency in prayer. How often in the same Psalm 
do we hear him breaking out in such expres- 
sions as these : " Quicken me, O Lord, ac- 
cording to thy word : be merciful unto me 
according to thy word : let thy mercies come 
also unto me according to thy word : deal 
bountifully with thy servant and keep thy 
word : establish thy word unto thy servant : 
remember thy word unto thy servant, on 
which thou hast caused me to hope/^ The 
word here referred to can be no other than 

7 



74 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



God's word of promise. We see, therefore, 
that it was faith in God's covenant enrao-e- 
ments which prompted all these devout 
breathings, and gave them both their earnest- 
ness and efficacy. 

The sanctifying power of the promises further 
appears in their tendency to produce submission 
and patience under afflictions. Many illustra- 
tions of this tendency we have in the Scrip- 
tures. Let a single citation suffice. David, 
speaking of God's word of promise, declares : 
This is my comfort in my affliction.'^ It is 
as if he had said : Unless the divine promises 
had been my comforters, I should have re- 
mained comfortless in the day of my ad- 
versity. 

Great is the influence of faith in the prom- 
ises on the patient bearing of our crosses and 
trials. Faith sees the coming dawn even in 
the dark midnight of affliction. Faith waits 
on God in the confidence of yet praising him 
for the health of his countenance. Faith is 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



75 



the best interpreter of the Christian's sorrows, 
for it knows not what it is to misconstrue the 
divine providence. If sense, reason and un- 
belief interpret our cross, they will make us 
cry out to God : " Why art thou become unto 
me as an enemy, or as a liar, or as w^aters that 
fail But if faith is the interpreter, it will 
cause us with meek submission to say : " I 
know the thoughts of his heart, that they are 
thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give 
me an expected end.'' Faith enables the 
Christian to discern a blessed issue to all the 
seemingly adverse dispensations wdiich he 
encounters in his earthly pilgrimage. Faith's 
creed is: Though he slay me, yet will I trust 
in him : though I sow in tears, I shall reap 
in joy ; though weeping may endure for a 
night, yet joy cometh in the morning : though 
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall 
fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive 
shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat, 
the flock shall be cut off from the fold and 



76 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I will 
rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God 
of my salvation/^ Many a Marah does the 
Christian meet with in the wilderness which 
lies between him and Canaan, but faith in the 
promises is the tree which, being cast into 
the bitter waters, makes them to become 
sweet. 

The promises of the Gospel have a sanctify- 
ing power y since they tend to detach our affec- 
tions from earth and to cause us to live as 
pilgrims here below. That such is their 
tendency is clear from Hebrews xi. 13, where 
the embracing of the promises is said to have 
led those who embraced them to confess that 
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 
It is easy to see how a firm trust in God's 
truth and faithfulness in what he has prom- 
ised produces this effect. The soul that rests 
on the divine promises discerns the emptiness 
of all mere earthly good, and, in the same 
proportion, feels the attractive power of 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



77 



heavenly glory and felicity. His treasure is 
there. His best-beloved is there. Therefore 
his heart and conversation are there. This 
weans him from earth and causes him to feel 
and act as a stranger and a pilgrim ; that is, 
as having only a temporary and uncertain 
abode upon it. 

The divine promises area fountain of spiritual 
joy, and this gives them a sanctifying efficacy. 
I v/ill hope continually/^ says the Psalmist, 
and will yet praise him more and more.^^ 
Observe the relation of ideas here. Hope in 
God— that is, of course, in God's promises — 
leads to an abounding in praise. But the 
Christian who is much in the heavenly exer- 
cise of praise is ever the lively, active, cheer- 
ful, growing Christian. The joy of the 
Lord is his strength. He may have little 
in hand, but he sings in hope and praises in 
expectation. His present possession may not 
be much, but his anticipated treasure is vast 

as the riches of eternity. Having taken the 
7 



78 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



promises as his heritage^ he can sing the songs 
of Zion even by BabeFs streams. 

The promises are an effectual means of spirit- 
ual life and vigour in those who emhrace them^ 
andy as such^ their tendency and effect is to pro- 
mote holy living. " By all these things/^ says 
Hezekiah^ speaking of the divine promises, 

do men live ; and in all these things is the 
life of my spirit.^^ In like manner, David, 
referring to the same enlivening and actuating 
power of the promises, declares : Thy word 
hath quickened me.'^ Oh what a heavenly 
life, what an active piety and zeal, are his who 
is continually exercising faith on the promises 
of God ! Why is it that our graces so often 
wither and the life of religion decays in the 
soul ? It is because we make too little use of 
the promises. 



CHAPTER VII. 



PRACTICAL ISSUES. 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE PROMISES 
HAS MANY SWEET AND BLESSED ISSUES, 
FULL OF STRENGTH AND COMFORT, TO THE 
BELIEVING SOUL, WHICH IT IS THE DESIGN OF 
THIS CLOSING CHAPTER TO OPEN AND EN- 
FORCE. 

Since the promises of God have their spring 
in his sovereign y boundless, free and unbonght 
love, let me affectioncdely press upon my dear 
impenitent readier s the duty and the privilege of 
embracing Jesus Christ, freely offered in those 
promises. My unconverted reader ! can you 
doubt the Saviour's willingness to receive 
you ? By what clearer demonstrations, at 

79 



80 THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



what dearer rate, could he have testified his 
willingness than he has done? Does he not 
invite, nay, command you to embrace him ? 
Is he not grieved by your refusal to obey ? 
Recall those bitter tears which he wept over 
Jerusalem because she did not know the day 
of her merciful visitation nor the things 
which belonged to her peace. Did he not 
yield up his life that he might open a way for 
you to come to him and be saved ? Does he 
not represent himself as rejoicing exceedingly 
at your return ? And does he not hold out 
to you, as the reward of your coming, a four- 
fold crown — a crown of righteousness, a crown 
of life, a crown of joy and a crown of glory ? 
Come then and receive the gift of pardon. 
Come and receive the gift of justification. 
Come and receive the gift of adoption. Come 
and receive the gift of sanctification. Come 
and receive the gift of peace with God and 
joy in the Holy Ghost. Come and receive 
that most excellent of his gifts, the crown of 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



81 



all the others — himself — and all the infinite 
and everlasting riches included therein. By 
all the divine charms and graces of his 
character, by the deep and everlasting love 
that fills his precious heart, by the wounds he 
received, the sufferings he endured and the 
tears which he weeps over lost sinners, by the 
pains from which he delivers and the joys to 
which he introduces, by the compassion you 
ought to feel for your own soul, by the stu- 
pendous interests at stake, and by the great- 
ness and excellency of eternal glory, I invite 
and entreat you to embrace the Lord Jesus 
Christ, that you may live by him, that you 
may die in him, and that you may reign with 
him for ever. 

But I am bound, in fidelity to your soul 
and your eternal w^ell-being, to present an- 
other view ; and it shall be in the inspired 
interrogatory of Paul ; How will you escape if 
you neglect the great salvation offered to you 
in the promises ? Alas ! you cannot escape. 



82 



THE PKOMTSES OF GOD. 



That is what the apostle means to affirm by 
his question. You cannot escape perdition 
if you neglect the proffered salvation. Is 
bare neglect^ then, sufficient to ruin the soul ? 
Yes, it is. It is not necessary to reject 
Christianity. It is not necessary to be an 
atheist, a deist, or even a scoffer. Indiffer- 
ence, inattention, neglect— this is enough to 
shut you out of heaven. Oh could you de- 
scend into the pit of woe and interrogate its 
wretched inhabitants as to the cause of their 
ruin, what answer would the most of th#se 
who have perished from Christian lands re- 
turn ? Without doubt, something like this : 
" We meant to embrace the Gospel, but we 
delayed our purpose. We gave it our assent, 
but not our attention. We knew, but we 
did not consider. Therefore it is that we 
perished miserably, perished finally, perished 
irretrievably. Inconsideration, insensibility, 
negligence is the cause of our destruction.'^ 
Is there one of my readers who recognizes in 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



83 



this picture his own likeness ? Let me say to 
such an one, in all tenderness : Take heed, lest 
by imitating the conduct of the lost, you at 
last come to share in their condemnation and 
misery. 

Since the promises of God are free^ it is the 
believer^ s privilege to mahe a free use of them. 
Christian reader, the promises of God are 
your strength, and should be your song in the 
house of your pilgrimage. They are the life 
and vigour of your graces. Have not all the. 
saints before us lived upon the promises? 
Have they not accomplished their warfare 
and gone to heaven through strength received 
from the promises ? There was not a step of 
Abraliam^s life bat he walked with a promise 
in his eye. There was not an affliction that 
Abraham met with but he took comfort to 
himself from the j)romises.'^ So it was with 
the father of the faithful, and so it has been 
with his spiritual children ever since. And 
so it was with the saints who preceded him. 



84 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



The faith of Abel, the piety of Enoch^ the 
preparation of Noah for the flood^ the purity 
of Joseph^ the' patience of Job, the sublime 
heroism of Moses^ the fidelity of Caleb and 
Joshua, the devotion of David, the courage of 
Daniel and his three friends, the tenderness of 
John and the flaming zeal of Paul, all drew 
their nutriment and vitality from the di vine 
promises. Let not the sense of your infirmity 
and sinfulness keep you from applying the 
promises to yourself. All the warrant you 
need is a willingness to embrace and rest 
upon them. They are not given because you 
are holy, but that you may become holy. 

Nor let your faith in the divine promises be 
hindered by the fear that you want the quali- 
fications required to apply them to your 
personal necessities. You think, it may be, 
that your measure of humiliation is not great 
enough, your sorrow for sin not deep enough, 
your sense of the preciousness of Christ not 
strong enough, to entitle you to appropriate 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



85 



the promises. If such is your thought, you 
wholly mistake the ground of faith. This 
is no worthiness in us, but the free and 
gracious faithfulness of our covenant God. 

But if indeed you want the qualification 
requisite for trusting in the promises — that is, 
faith — then come to Christ, that you may get 
that qualification. Did you ever hear of a 
person who came to Christ and was rejected ? 
Do all the ages furnish a solitary epitaph 
like this ? — Here lies a man whom Christ 
would not receive.'^ Be assured of this, that 
you can never draw the qualification you need 
out of yourself. Christ is the fountain, and 
the only fountain, whence it can be obtained. 
Therefore close with Christ at once. Would 
you have conviction ? Believe the promises. 
Would you have sorrow for sin? Believe 
tjie promises. Would you have a contrite 
spirit? Believe the promises. Would you 
have high thoughts of Christ and warm 
affections toward him? Believe the prom- 

8 



86 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



ises. Would you have peace with God and 
peace in your own bosom? Believe the 
promises. Would you have spiritual strength, 
fervour, joy and steadfastness? Believe the 
promises. Faith in the promises and the 
Promiser is the spring whence all these 
precious graces flow. 

Since the promises are all absolutely free and 
without any equivalent in return on our part, let 
us divest ourselves of every proud conceit of 
merit^ and seek to cherish a growing sense of 
the love, grace and Idndness of God in Christ 
Jesus. Here I cannot but cite the precious 
words of a precious Christian of a former age, 
to which no word of mine need be added : 
There is nothing that a Christian receiveth 
but it is the fruit of infinite love. There is 
not a conviction that tristeth a Christian but 
it is the fruit of infinite love. There is 
not a real sigh for sin but it is the fruit 
of infinite love. There is not one blink 
of the precious countenance of Christ but 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 87 



it is the fruit of infinite love. There is 
not the least deoTee of hatred aoi:ainst sin 
but it is the fruit of infinite love. There 
is not the least promise that is accomplished 
unto you but it is the fruit of infinite love. 
So that upon your receipts from God there is 
reason to sing that song : ' Is ot unto us, but 
unto thee doth belong the glory.^ And, 
therefore, I would press this upon you, O 
Christians; reduce all your mercies unto the 
fountain, and there sit down and pen songs of 
everlasting praise unto him. Will ye but 
take a view of this, there is not one bit of 
bread that ye eat, that is within a promise, 
but it is a mercy that cometh running to you 
through the bowels and tender heart of 
Christ. His heart is the fountain of all 
our mercies ; and they sweetly stream out of 
that precious fountain.^^ 

Since through faith in the promises we are 
made partakers of the divine nature , and. so by 
their living energy constituted in a likeness to 



88 



THE PROMISES OF GOB. 



God^ let us quicken ourselves in duty and con^ 
sole ourselves amid lifers tibials with the thought 
that when our likeness to God is complete we 
shall be admitted to a blessedness resembling 
that of God, God/^ says an eminent writer, 
"is infinitely blessed. In the eternal mind 
there is no jarring doubt, no distracting un- 
certainty, no fearful hesitation. All is pure, 
and lucid, and serene. What infinite com- 
posure, unruffled calmness and boundless 
self-satisfaction pervade the spirit of the ever- 
blessed God ! Sublime above storm and 
shadow and change, the peace of God passeth 
all understanding. So far as the Christian is 
like God in knowledge, righteousness and 
holiness, he will be blessed like God, They 
will be united in blessedness — the one as the 
ever-blessed Creator and Sovereign, the other 
as the happy creature and subject. Their 
sources of happiness will be the same, because 
their characters are the same as the Psalmist 
says, ' I shall be satisfied when I awake with 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



89 



thy likeness.' When his resemblance to God 
should be complete, his blessedness would be 
complete also. To the bosom of God the 
belie v^er will be taken. The throne of the 
Almighty secures the happiness of him who 
lives after the divine holiness. Passion, 
doubt, fear, sin agitate him no more. He is 
like God ; he is a partaker of the divine 
nature; and the peace of God, the very 
peace of God himself, shall keep his heart 
and mind for ever. 

Such is some faint explanation of the 
apostle's meaning when he speaks of Chris- 
tians becoming, through faith in Jesus [faith 
in the promises of the Gospel], partakers of 
the divine nature. How noble a dignity 
does he propose to our ambition ! What 
exalted felicity to our hopes ! What perfect 
satisfaction to our desires ! Go, then, un- 
believer, to the foot of the cross and ask 
that he who purchased by his atonement 
power to make us sons of God would en- 

8 « 



90 



THE PROMISES' OF GOD. 



stamp anew the image of God upon your 
fallen soul. Go, Christian, close to the same 
cross. There gain strength to follow Jesus, 
the Author and Finisher of your faith. Fulfil 
ye his joy, that his joy may remain in you, 
and that your joy may be full.^^ 

Since the promises have their rise and spring 
in Jesus, they should be in a high esteem with 
us. How much it should endear to us these 
gracious discoveries of God^s kindness and 
good will to sinners to know that they are all 
streams flowing from that ocean of love — the 
heart of the blessed Jesus ! If, as our eye 
runs over the promises, the thought more 
frequently found a place in our minds, This 
was bought with the Redeemer's blood and 
is the gift of his love,'^ how precious would 
both the promise and the Promiser become to 
our hearts! How such a realization, con- 
tinually recurring, would endear them to our 
affections ! And,'' to borrow^ the words of 
an old writer, let me tell you it is impossible 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



91 



for the promises to be in an high account with 
you till once ye reduce them to their rise and 
to their fountain. But once know that all 
the promises are sweet streams of love that 
have run through the heart of precious Christ, 
and from whence they have flowed unto you, 
and then, when this is believed, how shall 
ye sit down and comfort yourselves in the 
promises and rejoice exceedingly in them 

Finally : Since Christ is the fountain of the 
promises, and they are all yea and amen in him, 
it becomes us to cultivate the habit of applying 
them to ourselves personally, to the increase 
both of our graces and our spiritual joy. It is 
the privilege of the believer — for in the Gos- 
pel he is fully warranted — to say : I am in 
Christ; therefore all that is promised to 
Christ, as my Head and Representative, is 
promised to me. Nay, whatsoever is in him 
belongs rightfully to me, according to the 
tenour of the covenant : " I in them, and they 
in me, that we may be raade perfect in one.^^ 



92 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



And what is there that we need or can de- 
sire which is not found in Christ? Do we 
need pardon ? He has power to forgive sins. 
Do Ave need justification? He is the Lord 
our righteousness. Do we need inward 
purity ? He can cleanse us from all iniquity. 
Do w^e need counsel? In him are hid all the 
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Do we 
need strength? In Jehovah-Jesus is ever- 
lasting strength. Do we need direction ? 
He will guide us with his eye. Do we need 
healing? He is the great Physician. Do 
we need security for the new and divine life 
implanted in us by his spirit ? He gives it 
in these amazing words : ^' Because I live^ ye 
shall live also.^^ 

Beauty, riches, honour, health, happiness 
and lieaven we have in Christ. The jewels 
of the east, the gold of the west, the pearls of 
the north, and the spices of the south — all 
the treasures between the poles — are vanity 
and emptiness compared with Christ. In 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



93 



him all the scattered rays of 6eauty and loveli- 
ness in the universe meet and shine in one 
effulgent glow. The wealth of heaven and 
the glory of the Godhead are his; for it 
pleased the Father that in him should all 
fulness dwell. And this fulness^ if we are 
united to him by faith, is ours to console', to 
animate, to cheer, and to strengthen us amid 
the duties, the trials and the conflicts of life. 

In applying the promises, he much in the con- 
templation of their truth. Accustom yourself to 
think of Christ as the faithful and trueWitness, 
and of his words as the true sayings of God. 
" Thy words are true, G Lord,^^ is the reflec- 
tion w^ith which David strengthened his 
confidence in the divine faithfulness. Sense 
and reason and actual dispensations sometimes 
seem to run counter to the fulfilment of ^the 
promises. They did so in the case of Abraham. 
The weakness of his own body, the age of 
Sarah and the long delay of the promised 
blessing all combine to stagger and confound 



94 



THE PROMISES OF GOD. 



his faith. They are objections which he can- 
not answer. What method does he take to 
silence them ? A very remarkable one. He 
just shuts his eyes upon them. He did not 
consider them/^ says an apostle. He ignores 
them. He leaves them out of view. He 
forgets them and goes about his duty. Do 
you^ Christian reader, imitate so admirable 
an example. God's paths are often in the 
whirlwind, and his footsteps are not known. 
Therefore trust him where you cannot trace 
him ; and rest assured that not one of all the 
good things he has spoken of and to his 
people shall ever fail. In his own best time 
and way he will bring it to pass. 

In applying the promises, be much in the con- 
templation of their sweetness. The promises 
are not only faithful sayings, but, because of 
their intrinsic and exceeding excellency, they 
are worthy of all acceptation. David es- 
teemed the words of the Lord as sw^eeter than 
honey and the honeycomb. He accounted 



THE PPvOMISES OF GOD. 



95 



them as more precious than thousands of gold 
and silver ; and he rejoiced in them as one 
that findeth great spoil. 

In applying the promises, be much m the con^ 
templation of their suitableness. Whatever a 
Christianas malady may be, there is a precious 
remedy, a soothing and healing balm always 
at hand in the promises. Manifold are the 
engagements of God's love to us if we have 
but closed with his Son. There are promises 
suited to every stage of a Christian's progress 
and to every condition of his earthly being. 
There are promises not only of final and 
complete recovery in Christ, but also of sus- 
taining and sanctifying grace by the way. 
There are promises of free access to God, of 
fatherly care in providence, of covenant mercy 
to our children, of sanctified afflictions, of a 
gracious acceptance of our prayers, of de- 
liverance out of danger, of victory over 
spiritual enemies, of perseverance in holiness, 
of support in death and of a glorious resurrec- 



96 THE PROMISES OF GOB. 



tion. There are promises of help in the 
doing of our duty, of comfort in our sorrows, 
of strength in our weakness, of wisdom in 
our folly, of guidance in our blindness, of pro- 
tection in our perils — promises, in short, of 
all things needful in our way to heaven, and 
of everlasting rest and blessedness in heaven. 

Had we but a firm trust in God^s faithful 
covenant, Ave need not, even in our captive 
state and while sitting by the rivers of 
Babylon, hang our harps upon the willows ; 
but, tuning them to notes of sweetest melody, 
we might sing the songs of Zion, though yet 
in a strange land and far removed from those 
heavenly hills where our true inheritance lies 
— that celestial city, which is the seat of our 
hopes, the solace of our cares and the home 
of our affections. A morsel of bread and a 
cup of cold water, seasoned with a divine 
promise, afford a sweeter relish than royal 
dainties where the sense of God's covenant 
faithfulness is wanting. 



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Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July .2005 

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